Method of and apparatus for printing



Oct. 21, 1952 G. R. BRODIE 2,614,492

METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR PRINTING Filed Dec. 17, 1947 FIG. I

III/IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIM A FIG .4 10 INVENTOR a/ye R..Bradz'e ATTORNEYS Patented Oct. 211, i952 00., Inc, New

York

ING

. .Georg e-lt.-Brodiehovver Merion.Township-, Mont-- c me s C -l s i no-m Erc k H r'.

York Ni Y a corporation-ol. N ew.

Application December 17, letseriar; No; "mater This invention, relateslarly to an improved method of and apparatus th efor- Printing has:been. conducted heretofore for many. years: with stereotype and.electrotype plates; the web press. such plates are customarilysemi-cylindrical in. form and are fastenedto a rotatableplatecylinder-which bears against an, impression cylinder; The Web ofpaper passes between the cylinders to form the impression. V v

Inki.ng of the plates on the. plate cylinder is accomplished by means ofa. train of upward to 20 rollers extending from: the plate cylinder tothe inking fountain; The large. number of rollers isnecessary to secureproper distribution. of the ink,,and the train of rollers is usuallyquite complicated. Use of. such mechanism. materially retards the speedat which. the press may be operated. i

s .In recent. times, rubber plates have been substituted forstereotypeand electrotype. plates for a limited class of printing work in theso-called aniline press.- The rubber plates are formed. by firstimpressing thermoplastic resinous material with: the type form toprovide a matrix, and thereafter compressing. a sheet of. rubber into:the matrix and vulcanizing it.v Such rubber plates have'g'an advantagein. that they are light and easilyshapedabout the cylinder andmay be.securedthereto with adhesive materialt However, such plates. haverequired the use of so-called aniline. inks, which consist of pigmentedV3111..- ishe's made: up of'shellac and. alcohoh Inks of.

this type are. very expensive, extremely quick prii fiingplates' areused with. inks of: the type consisting of afipi'gment suspendedina'varnish made up of a resin anda volatile solvent: which is adaptedto be vaporized rapidly upon thev ap seam (mini-450) I f pr n i e,antennautilized: heretofore,

rollers-showing theknurled surface thereof and ing dis a .detailyiewofthe manner of comtrolling the amount of: ink which is applied totheprinting. plates... v

, 'I have discovered that, contrary to views here-- toforeheld byprinters. it is possible to printv successfully .at high speed withrubber plates using'an ink which previously has beenv utilized only inrinting from metallic plates. Moreover; insuc'h an operation, it ispossible to avoid: the long trains of inking rollers which have beenthereby permitting press operations at higher speeds than have been.possiblewith conventionalprinting methods.

. The. inventiondepends primarily upon the method of delivering ink tothe printing plates. Heretoforea solid-steel roller has been used-inaniline pressesand rubber or glue glycerine in plication. of heat. to.the printed impressiom Quick drying inks'ofl this type are usedextensively in printing. magazines and. have. superseded linseed oilinks during. the. past. fifteen years.

' "Another. obiectof, the invention is the provision ofan,improvedinkingmechanism: and a printing press including. such.mechanism.

Other objects and advantages: of the invention will be ap'parent as itis better understood. by

Fig. l. a. side. elevationof a; press embodying.

' the. invention;

FigQIZ, is apIan-vleWthereQf;

other types of letter presses. Itis not. desirable or necessary to use:a softroll to deliverthe ink to arubber plate andithe use of a solidsteelroll gives a resulting printing that displays a so-called halo, i.e., the: edges. of the type are inked but the body of each. letter-doesnot receive and C011? vey ink to the impression. Thus the body of the.letters may appear particularly white with an ink outline. l I Toavoid.this difficulty,v I. employ an inking roller. of. metal having, aknurled surface. The knurling must be disposed. atan angle, preferablyto the line parallel to the axis of the roller: The knurling may vary indimensions, but preferably is about 175 lines to an inch, with a depthnot exceeding 0..002.inch.. If the knurli'ng is: toocoarse, thedesiredefifeet is. not obtained, but it may be. finer than indicated withexcellent results.

The precise action of the knurled roller uponthe. rubber plate is notentirely clear.. However, by transferringthe. ink from a knurled rollerof the type. described. to the type surface on the rubber plate,vuniform: inking: over the surface is obtained, and hencexno: haloappears in the resulting impression.

.To obtain the best results, the knurled roller should be engaged by ahard rubber roller having a hardness of above durom'eter. The pressure;between the two rollers may vary from a few pounds to 10,000 pounds persquare inch. Theeffect" of the rubber roller is to' assure an ink layerof the desired. depth on the knurled oller, but its action is entirelydifierent from that or a doctor whi'chhas been used heretofore withknurled. inking rollers. The doctor blade inevit-- ably" scorestheknurled. surface and renders it useless. The .rubber'roller, on theother hand, creates no wear andeifetcively' limits the ink. layeruniformly for an indefinite times invention characterized}. moreoven.:by

theslmrmetionoi.therconventicnauountannamk at a regular rate. Thesurplus may be withdrawn, to the source and recirculated,for'examplebyja pump.

It is to be noted that in the-conventiona1 letter press printing unitwith the conventional fountain and ink train, it is necessary to have anumber of keys across the width of the press so as to control the inkflow in increments across. the web. This is necessary since the averageprinted form does not consume a uniform amount of ink across the widthof the web. In those portions across the width of the web where the inkis notheavily consumed, the ink tends to build up back along thetrain ofrollers and the fountain keys back of those points have to be tighteneddown to level off the flow. With the inking mechanism described in thisinvention, the ink is taken directly out of the fountain, applied to theplate and any excess left on the inking roll is returned to the fountainimmediately. Thus there is no opportunity for a surplus amount of ink tobuild up back of light portions on the form and it is possibl to print auniform film of ink across th entire width of theweb even though theform may vary from one extreme to the other across the web. The factthat the-inking roll is continuously taking ink out of the fountain,applying it to the plate'and then taking the reserve back into thefountain also makes it impossible 'to have ghost printing or to haveheavy and light densities of ink film which sometimes result from theuse of too few form and distribution rollers in the Alkali blue base2.00 Zinc resinate 15.30 Petroleum hydrocarbon, B. P. 450, F 22.60 Water0.10

Gils-onite 0.75

Rosin -4 0.68 Petroleum hydrocarbon, B. P. 503 F 1.07 Wetting agent(Tallicin 105) 3.20 Carbon black 16.00

Calcium carbonate pigment 6.30 Petroleum hydrocarbon, B. P. 381 F 32.00

It is to be understood that in describing this typical ink the inventionis not thereby limited, because it is apparent that numerouscombinations involving substitutions of resins, pigments, and otheringredients of the ink may be made. Thus,

the ink may be of any desired color, by substitut acteristic somewhatdifferent from ordinary mag-- azine inksgsuch as are used with extendedink trains, theink employed in accordance with the present inventionbeing somewhat softer. The

' preferred constants for the ink are determined at fyin the proportionsof the solvent in the composition above described.

Referring to the" drawing, 5 indicates the frame of a printing press.Suitably journalled therein are an impression cylinder 6 and a platecylinder 1 to which rubber printing plates 1 are adapted to be attached.The cylinders 6 and l are adapted tobe rotated in opposite directions asthe web 8 passes between them to receive the printed impression from therubber .plate or plates secured to the surfac of the plate cylinder 1.Beneath the cylinder 1, two inking cylinders 9 and ID are journaled forrotation in the frame to rotate in opposite directions. The cylinder 9-is preferably a hard rubber surface of approximately the hardnesshereinbefore specihad. The cylinder 10 has a knurled surface asindicated in Fig. 3. It will be noted that the knurling II isdisposed'at an angle of approximately 45 to a line parallel to the axisof the cylinder. The fineness of the knurling should be approximatelythat hereinbefore specified. The journals of thecylnders l, 9 and H] aremounted in adjustable devices of the usual type employed in presses, inorder that the pressure exerted between the cylinders and between theinking rolls may be adjusted to meet the desired conditions.

End plates l2 are disposed at the ends of the rollers 9 and 10 toprovide, in the bight or nip between the two rollers, a reservoir spacewhich is adapted to receive or to hold a quantity of ink of the selectedcomposition. The ink may be supplied continuously from the reservoir l3by a pump 14 and pipe 15. The overflow may be returned through a pipe I6to the reservoir l3. Thus, continuous circulation of the ink ismaintained and the body of ink is held in the bight or nip of therollers 9 and I0. As the latter rotate, a film of ink is carried on theperipheral surface of the roller l 0 and delivered to the rubber plateson the plate cylinder 1. The ink is continuously transferred to the Web8 as the cylinders 6 and I rotate, thus forming the printed impression.

Theweb, in the form of a roll I1, is supported on trunnions IS insupportslQ on the frame 5. It is delivered around guide rollers 20 and2| to the web. feeding mechanism, consisting of rollers 22, 23, and 24.It passes then over guide roller 25 to the cylinders; and l. Thence itpasses over a drum 26 supported for rotation at 21 on the frame 5. Thedrum 26 may be heated in any suitable manner, for example by steamsupplied from a convenient source, so that the drum is maintained at anelevated temperature such that as the web passes around itthe solvent isvaporized from the printed impression and the latter is dried. It hasbeen found that a twelve-inch steam drum will effect the drying of theprinted impression, whereas in standard magazine presses a steam drum 6or more feet in diameter is usually required.

From the drum' ZS, the web passes over a roller 28 and thence over aroller 29 to the rewind consisting of rollers 30, 3| and 32, whichengage the surface of the roll of web 33 as the latter is formed about amandrel 34, slidably supported inguides35. W

' of satisfactory impressions.

the drawings, with appropriate guide rollers,

constitute a Web perfecting press in whichboth sides of the web may beprinted before the web ,is rewound or cut in the usual manner.

The relative adjustment ofcylinders 9 and E9 to control the amount ofink carried by the knurled cylinder ID to the type of the rubberprinting plate 1' may be obtained by any conventional adjusting meanssuch as that shown in Fig. 4, where each journal 40 of roller 10 ismounted in a bearing block 4| which is slidable on the main frame of thepress. To this end, each bearing block carries-a block 42 having afemale thread into which a threaded adjusting screw 43 is threaded. Theadjusting screws are rotatably anchored in anchor blocks 44 and eachcarries a hand wheel 45 at its outer end. Rotabearing blocks 4| withcorresponding adjustment of the pressure with which the knurled roller Ibears against the relatively softer roller 9.

Among the advantages of the apparatus is the relative inexpensivenessand ease of handling of rubber printing plates. They may be applied tothe plate cylinder of the press by means of adhesive, thus avoiding thecomplicated clamping 6 ferring the inked impression of the plate to atraveling web.

2. The process of claim l further characterized in that the smoothcylindrical surface is of hard rubber.

3. A printing press comprising an impression cylinder, a rubber printingplate carried by the plate cylinder, a knurled inking roller having arelatively hard surface disposed to engage the rubber printing platecarried by the plate cylinder, a smooth-surfaced relatively softerroller disposed to engage the surface of the knurled roller, means forsupplying ink to and constantly maintaining it throughout the length ofthe bight between the knurled roller and the smoothsurfaced roller, thetwo rollers being adapted to rotate in opposite directions, each towardthe tion of the hand wheels causes a sliding of the i devices which areessential where heavy metal printing plates are used. Furthermore, thepress, due to the method of printing, is much faster than pressesheretofore known. The elimination of the complicated inking trainpermits markedly increased speed of operation with the production Themethod and the apparatus are adapted for printing a wide variety ofmaterials, including books, magazines, newspapers, catalogs, telephonedirectories and the like.

Various changes may be made in. the details of the procedure asdescribed and in the apparatus employed, without departing from theinvention or sacrificing the advantages thereof.

I claim:

1. The method of printing which comprises,

. the ink throughout thelength of the bight, controlling the depth of.the ink layer remaining on the knurled surface after leaving the bightby adjusting the pressure between the two cy1indri-' cal surfaces,passing the knurled surface carrying the layer of ink in rolling contactwith a rubber printing plate to ink the plate and transother at theirupper sides, and means for adjusting the pressure between said rollersto control the depth of the layer of ink carried by the knurled rollerto the rubber printing plate.

4. A printing press as defined in claim 3 in which the smooth-surfacedroller is of hard rubber.

5. A printing press as defined in claim 3 adapted to the passing of aweb between the plate cylinder and the impression cylinder and providedwith means for heating the web after it leaves the plate and impressioncylinders.

GEORGE R. BRODIE.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the fileofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,740,697 McManus Dec. 24, 19292,014,043 Harbinson Sept..10, 1935 2,036,480 Kaufler Apr. 7, 19362,042,476 Meyer June 2, 1936 2,047,624 Freidlander July 14, 19362,069,828 Hauptli Feb. 9, 1937 2,169,681 Dudly Aug. 15, 1939 2,194,911Porter Mar. 26, 1940 2,213,419 Taylor Sept. 3, 1940 2,226,848 CornwallDec. 31, 1940 2,271,124 Juve et a1. Jan. 27, 1942 2,275,514 Dudly Mar.10, 1942 2,276,662 Matuschke Mar. 17, 1942 2,310,788 I-Iummelchen Feb.9, 1943 2,322,445 Huber June 22, 1943 2,351,612 Hawley June 20, 19442,368,157 Ortolano Jan. 24, 1945 2,447,872 Riggs Aug. 24, 1948 OTHERREFERENCES Thiokol. Facts, published by Thiokol C0rp., Yardsville, N. JAug. 8, 1936.

Printing Inks, by Ellis; Reinhold Pub. Corp., 330 West 42ndsSt., N. Y.,1940.

